Local Winter Rifle League

[kmw1954]

This morning I shot my first match in an informal local rifle league. This league will entail 10 weeks between ranges of 100yds, 200yds and 300yds with a different target each week with one week were everyone will be required to shoot from their weak side. Also each week there is a bonus Money Shot for those that wanted to participate. This is the leagues 7th year.

There are 19 shooters total with two ladies and 1 young teen. There are 4 of these shooters that also compete regionally during the summer. I am one of 4 first timers to the league and the one also with probably the least experience shooting rifle.

This is an open league to any caliber or platform. Two requirements are all shots must be fired from a bi-pod and soft rear bag. I am competing with a Savage Model 10 in 223 in a Boyds Spike Camp stock and Athlon Argos 8-34X56 scope.

Today we shot at 100yards using Official I.B.S. 100Yard Hunting rifle targets. 20 shots in Round Robin format with 2 off target foulers and 3 sub-target sighters.
Temp today at start was 15* with a quartering steady wind st 20mph. It was cold and uncomfortable but great fun. I didn't do too bad I thought but when I arrived home and showed my wife the target picture she immediately commented, " you've shot better"! Thanks Dear.

 

[kmw1954]

Just received email for today's scores. 159/200. Two shooters share lead with 192/200, 3rd place 191/200, 4th 189/200

Week 2 we will be shooting 200yds with Official 200yd I.B.S. 200 Yard Hunting Rifle Targets. Same format.

 

[redcon1]

This morning I shot my first match in an informal local rifle league. This league will entail 10 weeks between ranges of 100yds, 200yds and 300yds with a different target each week with one week were everyone will be required to shoot from their weak side. Also each week there is a bonus Money Shot for those that wanted to participate. This is the leagues 7th year.

There are 19 shooters total with two ladies and 1 young teen. There are 4 of these shooters that also compete regionally during the summer. I am one of 4 first timers to the league and the one also with probably the least experience shooting rifle.

This is an open league to any caliber or platform. Two requirements are all shots must be fired from a bi-pod and soft rear bag. I am competing with a Savage Model 10 in 223 in a Boyds Spike Camp stock and Athlon Argos 8-34X56 scope.

Today we shot at 100yards using Official I.B.S. 100Yard Hunting rifle targets. 20 shots in Round Robin format with 2 off target foulers and 3 sub-target sighters.
Temp today at start was 15* with a quartering steady wind st 20mph. It was cold and uncomfortable but great fun. I didn't do too bad I thought but when I arrived home and showed my wife the target picture she immediately commented, " you've shot better"! Thanks Dear.

That sounds like a heck of a lot of fun and some good training. What are most folks shooting cartridge and rifle wise?

 

[kmw1954]

That sounds like a heck of a lot of fun and some good training. What are most folks shooting cartridge and rifle wise?

Yes this is going to be a ton of fun as long as I don't freeze to death.
I am shooting a mostly stock Savage Model 10 in 223 with a 22" barrel and Athlon Argos 8-34X56. It does sport a Boyds Spike Camp stock. The top 7 shooters are all shooting custom built tuned Bench rifles in some form of 6mm or 6.5mm... Many of the others are shooting receivers with some brand of Match barrel. One AR10, a couple 308, one 243 with a match barrel and I believe one 7mm08.

 

[redcon1]

Yes this is going to be a ton of fun as long as I don't freeze to death.
I am shooting a mostly stock Savage Model 10 in 223 with a 22" barrel and Athlon Argos 8-34X56. It does sport a Boyds Spike Camp stock. The top 7 shooters are all shooting custom built tuned Bench rifles in some form of 6mm or 6.5mm... Many of the others are shooting receivers with some brand of Match barrel. One AR10, a couple 308, one 243 with a match barrel and I believe one 7mm08.

Nice. Custom built benchrest rifles in 6 and 6.5 are just gonna dominate especially farther out but I have seen .223 do pretty amazing things at 100 yards even from semi-auto AR15s.

 

[kmw1954]

No question as I have watched these guys shoot for over a year. I am also pretty sure this gun is still more capable than me. Every now and then I can get 4 holes touching @100yds. and then even at 200yds we can shoot under MOA and on occasion put two in the same hole. But this is all part of the learning process.

 

[kmw1954]

Week two was a bit disappointing for the newbie. 127/200 yikes.

Five shot out of the scoring area. That hurts. Still solidly in 15th place and 11 behind 14th. Next week doesn't look very promising either as this will be my first real attempt at shooting 300yds. Hoping to shoot Weds. to sight in and figure out my elevation. Target area is 6" dia with a 1.5" bull.

Last weeks target;


1st weeks target;

 

[kmw1954]

After being laid-up for 4 weeks with the Virus I have been slowly making up weeks and am now just one week behind. Now after 7 weeks our little group of 19 has shaken out into basically 3 levels. Top level runs scores of 1243 on the lead to 1045 out of a total of 1400 points. Second level runs 960 - 707 and the bottom is 670 - 492.. I am at 670 with still one week to make up.

Last weeks target was a bruiser with only 5 shooters scoring above 100 points so I doubt I will make up much here.

The very last target I shot was this;



These were shot at 200 yds and the fish was shot from weak side. On the Ground Hog I should have skipped the two head shots and just shot for points. Oh Well!

 

[kmw1954]

Finally all caught up to date. Last two targets. Squirrels were shot at 300 yards and most did not score very well and have since been told that next year this target will be moved back to 200 yards. Occluded targets were shot at 200 yards. Sadly I was half way through shooting this target when I was called from my boss to tell me to come in as we were going to close the range early because of the cold and no business. So I ended up hurrying my last 10 shots.

 

[Varminterror]

Now after 7 weeks our little group of 19 has shaken out into basically 3 levels. Top level runs scores of 1243 on the lead to 1045 out of a total of 1400 points. Second level runs 960 - 707 and the bottom is 670 - 492.. I am at 670 with still one week to make up.

Interesting to see that demarcation between score “classes.” Not that 960 is terribly far from 1045, or 670 far from 707, but you’re saying there are 3 distinct categories, so I’m wondering…

Are there any correlations for those score classes? Age, equipment type, cartridge class, etc? How many folks are within each sub-category out of the 19 total? I love stats, and I’m extremely intrigued to know if there are any correlations to explicate the demarcations.

 

[kmw1954]

So the league finished a few weeks ago and here is another breakdown, first scores;
Winner, 1781/2000 then top group including winner; (5) 1781 to 1615, then (5) 1489 to 1314, (4) 1266 to 1061, (5) 980 to 669..

Top group have all been shooting this since the beginning, Winner is 3 times winner. There are actually 2 women in this group. The 5th shooter is also a PRC Shooter. Looking at it I suppose it could also be broken into 3 groups. Top 5, Next 9 and then the bottom 5.

One of the league rules is that everyone has to shoot from a bipod and rear bag. No practice shooting the day you shoot your league target. Rifles are open from center fire 22 to 30cal., no rimfire.. Cal of choice seems to be some form of 6mm. There was one AR and I shot the only 223. I believe there were 3 308, one 7mm08 and one 243. No 25's!

At our end of year meeting the lead even went over the targets and ranked from easiest to hardest broken down by avg. scores.. Of the ten targets there were 2 that rated the most difficult. One was a Dartboard shot at 200yds the other was two squirrels shot at 300yds.. The next two hardest were an Occluded target and diminishing circles.



Sadly I do not have a picture of the circles but it is 10 circles in two rows each getting smaller. First sub target circle was 1 MOA @300yds. last target was 1/4 MOA.

It was a ton of fun and I will certainly be shooting again next winter, good Lord willing of course.

 

[kmw1954]

Also faced a handicap this year as right after the 3rd week I was hit with the VID19 and was laid up for 4 weeks. So no shooting for a month and then to have to make up those 4 targets. Then one week I had shot my make-up target and was half way thru my second make-up and got a call from my boss to wrap it up because they were going to close early because of the weather and temps. By 1 pm they had a total of 3 customers all day. So I had to rush through my last 10 shots so we could close the range.